Obama admin. says $675,000 is an appropriate punishment for sharing 30 songs

[Playinghardball]

Source: Raw Story

Making good on its earlier promises, the Obama Administration went to court this week to defend the unpopular Copyright Act and what critics call as its extremely high per-song fines.

In a recent appeal of a decision that gutted a $675,000 finding against an Internet user who downloaded and shared just 30 songs, the government sided with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in claiming that a judge has no right to reduce the amount, no matter how "excessive" it may be deemed.

The administration said last year that it supported fines in the Copyright Act of up to $150,000-per-file.

The suit's target is Joel Tenenbaum, only the second defendant in America to take an RIAA lawsuit to a jury trial.



Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/04/07/obama-admin-675000-is-an-appropriate-punishment-for-sharing-30-songs/

[Wilms]

1. Obama picks RIAA's favorite lawyer for a top Justice post

snip

As president-elect, one of Obama's first tech-related decisions has been to select the Recording Industry Association of America's favorite lawyer to be the third in command at the Justice Department. And Obama's pick as deputy attorney general, the second most senior position, is the lawyer who oversaw the defense of the Copyright Term Extension Act--the same law that Lessig and his allies unsuccessfully sued to overturn.

snip

During his confirmation hearing, it will be instructive to see if senators ask whether his zealous anti-file sharing advocacy can make him an objective civil servant--especially when these same politicians want the Justice Department to sue peer-to-peer pirates at taxpayer's expense. (Then again, if that proposal becomes law, Perrelli's surely the right man for the job.)

snip

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10133425-38.html

[louslobbs]

14. What about some jail time? The corporate prison system can always use a few bucks too, why not a

a year in prison as well, just to send a further message and stimulate the "prison economy" as well. That will stop these low down dirty pirates. No need to go after the rich and powerful on wall street who have stolen billions, always go after those who have little to no power and haven't committed any where near the "theft" of the corporate pigs. The current state of this country makes me want to vomit.
Lou

[FreakinDJ]

2. Yet we sign Free Trade Agreements with countries that Pirate Songs

by the MILLIONs and say NOTHING

or engage in the exporting of "Knock-Off" products by the Millions

or choose to "Simply Ignore Patent Infringement" and sell those products to other countries

[Enthusiast]

9. Very good point. nt

[onehandle]

3. Yesterday, I bought and ripped a double CD with 30 songs, then gave the MP4s to my wife.

Who do I send the $675,000 to?

[emulatorloo]

4. Did you post in on a sharing site where 10,000 people downloaded it?

Not that I agree with the RIAA's Bullshit, just that your analogy isn't good

[ET Awful]

5. Me

:)

[24601]

11. You are free to send it to me - I'll forward the appropriate $4.00 to

itunes and keep the rest as a modest handling fee. It would be much more if I were an attorney.

[raouldukelives]

6. If he had only laundered billions in drug money

through American banks. Then he could buy all the CD's he wants legally. The smaller they are, the harder they fall.

[nc4bo]

7. More change I can believe in I see.

Does anybody know if the actual artist gets a portion of the fine?

How about just making people pay the price for the damn cd? Oh no, that's not the goal here (to actually make people pay for a cd).

Want to hurt regular folks, than make the fine the price of the cd x 10. For the average joe, that hurts but it wouldn't ruin your fucking life or the life of your family.

[Incitatus]

12. I doubt it.

They might give the artist their usual cut for selling 30 of their songs. A dollar or 2. :shrug:

[Poll_Blind]

8. You can always count on Obama!

PB

[FiveGoodMen]

10. ...to do the wrong thing. Yep.

[nalnn]

13. Question

What this person hosting a file sharing site? Or just one of the millions of random users who download torrents and forget to turn off sharing everyday?

[nc4bo]

15. He was just a college student. Nice, eh? nt

[nalnn]

16. Well

If he wasn't running some sort of pirate bay or the like, the fine is ridiculous. In my own opinion, even groups like Pirate Bay and those sites like that shouldn't be fined at all. There needs to be something worked out so that the artists don't suffer from piracy, but as for the record companies? I say they already have enough money, they don't need this or any fines from people who download media.

[_ed_]

17. Obama always sides with his corporate buddies

over the common man. Let's see how this works out in 2012.